The V&A Illustration Awards

The V&A Illustration Awards is the UK’s most prestigious annual illustration competition recognising the very best in Book, Editorial and Student Illustration.

The competition has been running since 1972 and its list of previous winners is a veritable Who’s Who? of British Illustration including household names like: Ralph Steadman, Posy Simmonds, Sara Fanelli, Quentin Blake, Laura Carlin, Matthew Richardson, Helen Musselwhite and Yasmeen Ismail.

This year, more established and aspiring illustrators will vie for the title of “Illustrator of the Year”, a cash prize of up to £8000, a marble trophy and a career-changing opportunity to have their work displayed at the V&A and acquired by the Museum’s Word and Image department.

This blog will keep you posted on every aspect of the awards, highlighting some of the treasures from the V&A’s collection of contemporary Illustration and giving you a behind-the-scenes perspective of the judging and installation process.

With one week to go before entry to the 2018 V&A Illustration Awards closes, here is the necessary info you need to submit your work: Is your work eligible? The published categories are open to illustrators resident in the UK, or that have published within the UK book and editorial market. For 2018, this includes self-published […]

The 2017 V&A Illustration Awards were held at the V&A on the 16th of May. Here is a little taste of the night, from the winners, to the Judges and the new V&A Illustration awards display; which can be seen free of charge outside the National Art Library until the 20th of August. Director […]

On 16th of May, at a ceremony and private view here at the V&A, the winners of the 2017 V&A Illustration Awards were announced. The winner in each category received a £3,000 cash prize as well as a trophy and a certificate. As overall winner of the 2017 competition, A. Richard Allen is the recipient of the […]

With just over two weeks to go before the winners are announced, the judges of the 2017 V&A Illustration Awards have whittled down the entries from nearly a thousand to just three in each category. On the 16th of May we’ll find out the winners of the awards for:

Last week, in prepping for the opening of the 2017 V&A Illustration Awards, we found ourselves browsing through previous winners of the competition. The breath and scope of illustration styles is still astounding and every year, as the entries start rolling in, we often find ourselves wondering …which one of these artists will be next […]

What is David McConochie’s secret? In the space of a year, he’s bagged two prestigious illustration awards and a lucrative commission for The Folio Society. He’s just been crowned Winner of the V&A Illustration Awards and to mark the opening of the 2016 Illustration Awards display, I caught up with David to find out more […]

It’s an enduring mystery of art competitions: what exactly do the judges want? As the shortlist for the V&A Illustration Awards is announced, I caught up with the judges of the Student Prize, Rafi Romaya & Ruth Prickett, & quizzed them on their choices, trends in illustration & their views on why Student Competitions matter.

How do you sum up a 400 page novel in a single image? How do you design an object to be both a work of art and a consumer-good? Continuing with our Best of the Best series of V&A Illustration Award winners, here we list 5 of our favourite Book Cover Designs.

We are just thrilled to announce that the former Children’s Laureate, one of the nation’s favourite authors and a writer with as strong a claim as any to the title of “National Treasure” – Dame Jacqueline Wilson – will be judging the published categories of the 2016 V&A Illustration Awards.

With limited page space and tight commission deadlines, the editorial illustrator must demonstrate the flare and imagination to sum up complex ideas quickly. Here we list – in no particular order – 5 of our favourite winners of the V&A Illustration Awards Editorial category.